Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling
The first time Draco Malfoy met Astoria Greengrass, they were in Hogwarts' grand library. she was standing to grab a book and he was on his way to do his potions homework. He bumped straight to her, dropping all of his things and she fell with the book she wanted to borrow landing painfully on top of her head.
"Watch where you're going!" He sneered. Astoria glared at him, not happy at his attitude at all.
"Me? I was standing here motionless! Shouldn't I be the one who said that?!"
Draco couldn't say anything in retort and Astoria left him behind, clutching the book close to her chest with her nose held high. Draco was rendered speechless by a girl two years below him. Slowly Draco collected his fallen essay. He was about to leave when he saw something. A silver brooch. It's broken though. Maybe it broke when it fell, or it might be broken to begin with, Draco couldn't tell. But the pieces are still there. He can fix it. And then he can return it to the insignificant girl...
Why does he want to return it? Usually he'll just take it for himself or throw it away.
And then his grey eyes are drawn to his essays again and all thoughts of the brooch is shoved into a tiny box and pushed to the very back of his mind. Even when he's Snape's star student, the potions master would give him a sharp glare if he doesn't do his homework. And Snape's glare is scary. He dropped the brooch and its broken pieces into his pocket and proceed to search for some reference books.
"Reparo." Draco lazily pointed his wand to the brooch. Some of the pieces mend itself, but one part of the brooch lay motionless.
"Hm?" Draco spun the one piece that stubbornly refused to re-attach itself to the brooch between his fingers. He felt a prickling sensation whenever that piece touched his skin. It feels odd to the touch. It doesn't happen with the other broken parts.
"Weird." He muttered. Maybe he should ask Snape about it?
"What's weird, Draco?" Blaise Zabini asked, not looking up from the essay he's writing.
"Nothing." The Malfoy family's successor said automatically.
"Hey, you have to work on your essay, Draco. Professor Snape won't punish us in front of the others, but he'll have our heads later." Zabini frowned when he spotted Draco fiddling the brooch.
"Yeah, I know." Draco dipped his quill to the ink and started writing. The brooch lay in his pocket, forgotten once more. He didn't see Astoria stealing glances at him from the other side of the common room, frowning.
"What's wrong, Ash?" Her friend Emily asked, noticing her odd behavior.
"Nothing important, Em," Astoria instantly put her attention back to the charms book she was reading. "I was just...distracted."
"Oh," Emily smiled and offered her some fudge.
While Astoria doesn't really think highly of muggles, she followed muggle studies, anyway. Just to prove how much better pure-blood wizards are. She listened as the Professor ranted about this and that with increasing boredom. She raised an eyebrow when Emily snored in the middle of the class, completely ignoring the Professor and instead let herself drown in the ocean of dreams. Barely managing to contain her laughter, Astoria pressed her fingers to her lips in hopes the urge to giggle would disappear. Oh, she loved Emily when she does that to someone other than her.
Once the class is over, Astoria whispered the magic words to wake her friend up, "There's a mountain of sweets sent to you by Zabini."
Emily, who highly admires Blaise and adored sweets even more, shot up in a blink of an eye, looking ecstatic. But then she noticed how Astoria barely contained her laughter.
"Ash, it's not funny!" Emily frowns.
"Yes, it is." Astoria snorted.
"Oh, bother." Emily pouts and sulk as they made their way to Slytherin's common room. Astoria put her giggles to a stop, but she couldn't entirely erase the amused smile that graced her lips. Emily did not sulk for long. The instant Astoria offered her some chocolate frogs, she brightened up and forgave her.
On her way to their next class, Astoria bumped to none other than Draco Malfoy. The older boy glanced at her discreetly. For a moment their eyes met, inspecting each other curiously. And then Draco turned away, almost as if he avoided gazing at her. With puzzlement, Astoria watched his retreating figure.
"Ash? Helloooo! Earth to Astoria!" Emily shook her shoulder
"Hm? Yeah, what is it?" Astoria snapped her attention back to her friend.
"You've been weird Ash. You zoned out a lot, and it's always when Malfoy's...around..." Emily paused. And then a mischievous grin bloomed on her face.
"W-what?" Astoria is suspicious of what Emily is thinking about.
"You like him!" Emily yelled triumphantly.
"Huh? What are you-"
"You like him! That's why you're so distracted! You like Dra-Hmph!" Astoria muffled her friend. Emily got the wrong idea. She doesn't like Draco Malfoy. He just happen to keep her brooch with him, and she wants it back. But then the older teen just had to make it difficult by acting strange around her. She glared at Emily as she felt other students sent her weird looks.
"I certainly do not. And I don't appreciate you shouting false information in the middle of the corridor." Astoria hissed irately. But Emily is ecstatic, and she wouldn't stop bothering her until the end of the day, in which she's stuck working on the piles of homework the Professors hand them. Astoria had finished hers earlier, and is lazing around with a delicious mug of chocolate in her hands.
"Greengrass," Astoria glanced to the one who called her and is astounded when she saw Draco Malfoy.
"Malfoy," She greeted back.
"You drop something." Draco handed her her silver brooch, smooth and flawless, perfectly mended. She stared at it with wonder. One part of it had been hit by a curse, and it shouldn't be possible for a third year student to fix it.
"How did you-? It's been broken for ages!"
Draco had a small scowl on his face. "A simple thank you would suffice."
"Right...thanks, Malfoy." She hesitantly shake his larger hand, wondering if he's always this remarkable. She didn't even ask him to fix it, yet he did.
"I...never mind." And he left. The flicker of hesitation and something else in his cold grey eyes made Astoria curious. Malfoy is, unless in the presence of Harry Potter, a mostly cool and composed person. He do not hesitate in many things.
"Malfoy!" Draco looked at her in puzzlement, one pale eyebrow raised. She handed him back the brooch. It was the first gift she ever received from her mother, and the last. She honestly treasured it, and she was devastated when it was broken. One of the reasons she kept hanging around the library was to find a spell to fix it. This is not the easiest thing for her to do. But she couldn't possibly think of anything else to return the huge favor. It's a priceless thing for her. "You can have it."
"I took my time finding a way to fix it and bring it back to you, and you just gave it to me?" He asked cynically. "How very thoughtful of you."
She huffed. "I appreciate your work, and that's why I gave it to you. It...it means a lot to me."
Just for a while his cold eyes soften and he twirled the brooch in is hand. Astoria silently fidgeted and hoped Emily's slacking jaw didn't go any wider and that she should stop staring if she couldn't take it.
"I'll take it, then, Astoria." There's a certain tone in his voice that made her skin crawl while butterflies flew in her stomach at the same time.
When Malfoy turn away to go to the boys' dorm, Astoria sank to her seat and pondered what get to her that made her give the brooch to him, why she was at loss for words (something that never happened before), why was she trembling and why won't Emily stop smiling?
"Oooh, Ash, I take it someone's happy to talk to her crush~!"
That night, Astoria didn't share her chocolate cauldron with Emily and ate all of it right in front of her as a form of torture.
To Be Continued
A/N : Hey there, lovelies! I just got a streak of idea about Malfoy and decided to write it! I hope you like it. I'll try to make Draco more in-character, since he's pretty much a git at the time and not yet have his character developed. I'll also try to make Astoria more Slytherin-like. Hey, she's raised in a pure-blood family who thinks they're better than anyone else, so she won't be Muggle-tolerant yet. I've been thinking how I should make her look, since Rowling didn't describe her. So I decided to look at the movie and give her my own self-made characteristics.
I apologize if my English is mishmash-ed between American and British. I try to use British for this fic, but seriously, I still have trouble differentiating them while writing (though I can identify them just fine when reading).
Please read and review.
Well, that's all, dear readers. Until next chapter!
